From: ALAN WRIGHT [AWW@ccb.ac.uk]
Sent: 30 January 2007 10:59
To: Claire Mitchell
Cc: Karen Barford; Terry.Roy@Brighton-Hove.gov.uk; PHILIP CULVERWELL
Subject: RE: OEEG / Equal meetings and events

Dear Claire,
Sallie has forwarded me a copy of your e-mail which you sent to her yesterday.

It's disappointing that you perceive a lack of commitment on the part of Constructing Futures as we do have an extremely good record of attendance at Equal meetings and events since the launch of this project. We recognise our position and obligations within the overall Equal Brighton and Hove project and our policy is, in fact, to give priority to Equal activities over and above the numerous and frequent other invitations we receive requesting our attendance at meetings and events.

When you launched the OEEG programme of meetings, we made a conscious decision to support this initiative whenever possible as we view this as valuable work which we can both contribute to, and benefit from. It is simply very unfortunate that it has not been possible for Sallie to attend all the meetings but reasons such as previous engagements, unforeseen events, annual leave and Ofsted inspections are all legitimate explanations for this, and do not indicate a lack of commitment!

Since Howard ceased working as an employment engagement project officer, Sallie has been the only person available here in Constructing Futures to carry out employer engagement activities and she has put a tremendous amount of time, effort and dedication into providing the best possible support to our students in the management of their work placements, whilst maintaining her service to our supporting employers and the Construction Employers Group.  For several months we tried to recruit a further member of staff into the project to reinforce our employer engagement activities, but despite re-advertising and interviewing several candidates in the process, we remained unsuccessful in finding a suitable person. We are therefore now working more closely with City Business Skills to try and address this issue.

Regarding next week's OEEG meeting, Sallie had agreed to attend on the 8th Feb and was looking forward to this, but unfortunately could not accommodate the late request to change this to the 6th Feb.  

I hope that I have managed to put the situation into context and that Sallie will be able to receive your support and understanding of the particular challenges she faces as we all endeavour to achieve positive outcomes for our own projects and the EBH project as a whole.

Best regards,
Alan


-----Original Message-----
From: Claire Mitchell [mailto: claire.mitchell@bhbcp.org.uk ]
Sent: 29 January 2007 15:17
To: Sallie White
Subject: RE: Tuesday 6th February


Hi Sallie,

Thanks for letting us know. Obviously it is a concern because out of
the
11 OEEG meetings to date you have only made 2! I am certainly not
pointing fingers however it is quite patent that Constructing Futures
does not see the work of the OEEG as a priority.

Thanks